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tv   Legal View With Ashleigh Banfield  CNN  March 6, 2014 9:00am-10:01am PST

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and the reason for that is very, very simple. and it's exactly what i said to cpac in chicago in 2012. the reason we have to start talking about what we're for and not continuing to rail against what we're against is because of one simple reason, our ideas are better than their ideas. and that's what we have to stand up for. and if you need any further example of that, just look at what's going on in terms of what they're for in washington, d.c. what they're for in washington, d.c. is to have the leader of the senate democrats stand up and rail against two american entrepreneurs who have built a business, created jobs and created wealth and fi lan tlfil tlop pi. harry reid ought to get back to work and -- it's typical.
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it's typical contrast between what's happening with governors and what's happening in washington. there are lots of examples i can tell you about and i am going to tell you about. governors are about getting things done. governors are about making government work and keeping government out of people's lives as much as they can. and we've got lots of examples of it. look at what's happened in wisconsin with my friend governor scott walker. scott walker stood up for collective bargain reform and you know what happened to the teachers union in wisconsin? their membership is down 60% because he made it voluntary to be a member in wisconsin. in ohio john stood up against the crazy idea democrats had in ohio causing economic depression in that state. and what you have now is lower taxes and more jobs and
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unemployment rate that's lower than the national average that's getting things done in a state like ohio with john kasakc. how about michigan? how about michigan where governor rick snyder has made michigan the home of the uaw a right to work state. in florida rick scott has taken -- in florida rick scott has taken an unemployment rate he inherited well over 11% and brought it to under the national average and because of free market conservative ideas has created over 450,000 new private sector jobs in three years in florida. >> so there you have it, a chris christie who last year was not even invited to cpac making an impassioned plea to his audience, to the base now at cpac and critical speaker at
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that, especially at a time when he's been under the microscope for the bridgegate scandal that is still under investigation both on a federal and local level. i want to bring in dana bash to comment on this appearance. what did chris christie need to do when he stepped up to that microphone today, dana? >> he needs to express to the people who are here who are gathered from all over the country, conservative activists, that he is somebody who is one of them. and it's still going on behind me as you can see and hear. but i think the most interesting thing is the way he was greeted, which was pretty enthusiastically. i was here earlier for ted cruz's speech, for paul ryan's speech. not much difference, in fact maybe you could even argue that he's getting even more of a rousing response from the crowd. particularly on the idea that you heard him say which is that republicans can't just be against things, they have to be for things. and giving the ideas from out in
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the country, from governors, that they are actually doing things as opposed to here in washington where there's just a lot of talk. he also threw a little bit of red meat to this conservative crowd hitting harry reid, the senate majority leader, for what he's been doing on the senate floor slamming the coke brothers, who are billionaires out of texas who fund super packs to help republicans, that is something that's going to endear him with a lot of these conservatives as well. he's still speaking. we'll see what the result is at the end. but i can hear another red meat line coming as i'm speaking. he's attacking the media, which given his trouble in new jersey that is kind of a common cause, a common enemy between chris christie and a lot of these conservative activists, the media that's sort of an easy one for him to get the crowd on his side. ashleigh. >> love or hate the media, whatever coverage he's been getting in bridgegate polls are saying 50% of republicans would
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consider voting for chris christie for 2016. so maybe he hates the media, but it's not working out too badly for him it would appear. i know you have your work cut out for you to listen to the rest of the speech. dana bash, thank you for that. i've also got a lot of breaking news i want to get to as well. and that is this, the crisis in ukraine. you want to mess with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of ukraine? president obama's ready to freeze your assets and stop you from entering america. that seems to be the resounding message because with no end in sight to the russian occupation of military bases in ukraine's crim crimean peninsula, the white house today ruled out its strongest response so far. we'll have much more on that in a moment. but in other developments the crimean parliament today set a march 16th referendum for leaving ukraine officially and rejoining russia. but the ukrainian leaders in kiev say, well, that's just illegal. and this is just engineered by moscow. the new ukrainian prime minister is meeting with 28 of his european counterparts today at
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an eu summit that could produce more sanctions. separately john kerry while all of that was going on was meeting for a second straight day with his russian counterpart, the foreign minister sergei lavrov. again, no breakthrough, although body language can't argue not bad. this was the photo op anyway. finally, a picture that would seem to say it all. take a look at that, an aged warship deliberately scuttled by russian forces at the mouth of the crimea inlet blocking a fleet of ukrainian ships on the inside. i want to starthis hour at the white house. michelle, this diplomatic shot at the white house, tell me how significant this is. >> yeah, this is really a first step. and you may say it's the first step in sanctions, but we've seen small steps over the past several days beginning with remember the u.s. saying, well,
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we're not going to participate in meetings leading up to the g-8 and then went a step further saying we're not going to participate in trade talks or energy talks with russia. these things are important, but many analysts say what is this going to do to change the behavior russia's been on? possibly nothing at all. you saw the picture of the warship, some might call that a provocative move, deliberately blocking the naval assets of ukraine. so how should the international community respond? today's a big day for dploepipl. you mentioned the u.n. security council. all 28 european heads of state meeting and with a view of imposing sanctions today. but the u.s. has been at the front of the pack diplomatically and now at the front leading sanctions. so president obama signed this executive order this morning on doing what the administration has said it was going to do over the past couple of days. the u.s. has been warning about this. and this morning it happened.
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first of all, freezing assets of individuals seem to be undermining democracy in ukraine or contributing to instability. also they mention people who may have misappropriated state funds. or in an interesting phrase, asserted authority there without authorization from the kiev government. and banning entry and revoking visas of people who fall under those same categories, ashleigh. >> all right, michelle kosinski live at the white house. thank you for that. in rome today the top u.s. diplomats were all smiles and handshakes, the cameras were rolling but sadly not a whole lot got resolved. behind the scenes officials were saying what they really thought about all of this. the state department put out what it calls the top ten russian lies about ukraine, which moscow promptly dismissed as low-grade propaganda. we're traveling with the secretary of state. eli elise, i got the feeling that while there were no live press conferences to announce what
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they'd achieved and what looked like through body language a good meeting, there was some achievement. they did get some important discussions on the table. >> reporter: well, ashleigh, this is the fourth meeting in the last 24 hours between secretary of state kerry and his russian counterpart sergei lavrov. they met yesterday in paris in various groupings, alone and with other foreign ministers. and today, again, all trying to get this diplomatic pathway forward. they want to get some kind of coordination group which will bring the russians and ukrainians to the table. russian foreign minister left the meeting today saying no agreement yet but agreed to continue talking. and secretary kerry has said he understands that foreign minister will have to go back to moscow, consult with president putin and perhaps in the coming days or week or so they could get something going, ashleigh. so i don't think it's a total wash. there's a lot of diplomatic maneuverings going around. the germans are very involved.
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the french. together they have a plan on the table that would have some elements that are attractive to russia. so secretary kerry thinking that it's important to keep meeting even if the ultimate goal of getting those two sides together hasn't been accomplished yet. >> and yet, you know, troops or what do you want to call them, defense forces, they remain on the ground back in the crimean peninsu peninsula. elise, thank you for that, live from rome. some gripping testimony in the murder trial of olympian oscar pistorius. you'll remember that he shot his girlfriend to death last valentine's day, a year ago. and today what was said in court about it made him break down in tears. we'll have details for you next. [ male announcer ] did you know
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with all of the breaking news in ukraine, we've not had an opportunity on this program to give you the gripping murder trial details that have been playing out this week. and also a trial that's been getting a lot of attention from all over the world. this is the trial of oscar pistorius, an international olympic hero fallen from grace as he defends himself against charges that he murdered his model girlfriend reeva steenkamp in south africa on valentine's day of last year. one by one neighbors wlo didn't see but say they heard blood curdling screams and then heard gunshots follow have been testifying. and one by one they've all been grilled by the defense. today perhaps the most emotional day so far in this case. one of those neighbors, who also happens to be a doctor, told the court that he was the first to find reeva steenkamp mortally wounded and bleeding. and testimony was so graphic that oscar pistorius held his
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head down, covered his ears. all of this as a doctor talked about that night and about the deal that pistorius made with god. >> while i was trying to ascertain if she's survivable, oscar was crying all the time. he prayed to god to please let her live. she must not die. he says while he was praying that he will dedicate his life and her life to god if she would just only live and not die that night. >> robin kurnow joins me live from pretoria now. the statements sounded really remarkable that oscar pistorius was almost sick to his stomach.
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can you give us some color that we didn't see in that courtroom? >> as you said earlier it was really emotional, quite traumat traumatic. remember this is the 12th anniversary of oscar pistorius' mother's death. so to hear the gruesome quite graphic details, the doctor was describing what he saw. and as he walked into the house, reeva steenkamp he said was lying on her back, oscar had one hand over a wound in her thigh. his other hand two fingers in her mouth trying to clear her airways, but she had clinched down on him. he was obviously sobbing, crying. during all of this quite graphic detail descriptions of the head wound, about how brain tissue and blood has intermingled with her hair. oscar pistorius literally started gagging, dry wrenching essentially so much so that the court sketch artist told us afterwards that he was so worried oscar pistorius was going to vomit that he actually cleared all the pencils out of
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his bag and handed his satchel, actually vomit into.s to - so this was the kind of deep visceral emotion that pistorius experienced. and i think for anybody watching it on television, any of us inside the court, it was sad, it was powerful. it was just gut wrenching, wasn't it? >> so, robin, what about what was said on the stand? apart from the drama that was playing out, you know, from defendant's table, what about the actual testimony? what was said from this witness that was so critical to this case? >> well, i think this witness as well as four others who lived at varying distances as neighbors around pistorius's house, this doctor was the closest. and i think to broadly sum it up it's about what they heard and when. all of them over the course of the past few days have acknowledged that they heard
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sounds, screams, sounds. and if what the defense is trying to prove and have tried to do over and over again, quite successfully so, i think our legal analysts have said, is that they try to say those first sounds that people perhaps woke up to were gunshots. those were the sounds, the gunshots that killed reeva steenkamp, the head wound so severe that she couldn't have screamed afterwards. the screams that people might have heard even though they sounded like a woman at times were in fact oscar pistorius hysterical calling for help and that the second set of sounds were the cricket bat he used to try and bash down that door to try and get reeva when he realized it wasn't an intruder and her. that's the defense's line of argument and cross-examination. and they have been, i must say and according to our legal analysts, quite successful not in disproving or discrediting these witnesses at what they think they heard, but at least
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sewing doubt perhaps in the judge's mind and the court's mind that as we sit there this identification of what these sounds were was so similar. and i think that's what's going to be key as we go through these next few days, next few weeks is does the sound of gunshots sound the same as a cricket bat whacking a heavy door at night? this is where we're going, very nuanced, very powerful and very technical at the same time. >> robyn kurnow live for us in south africa. robyn will have a lot more in this week's cnn spotlight, the oscar pistorius trial. it's going to run tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. eastern time. back right after this. transferred money from his before larry instantly bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement.
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developments today on capitol hill, members of the congressional black caucus are pretty angry and demanding that a fellow member of the house be stripped of his leadership role. all of this because of this moment that played out live in a committee hearing. i want you to just direct your attention towards the man standing, that is the committee chairman issa. down to his left there is trying to speak. congressman issa up and walked out of the room and instructed a bunch of other people to leave as well. but he says this thing is adjourned. our senior washington correspondent is live with me now on this. you're the perfect person to answer this question. i don't know exactly what went on there, and all of the arcane details of procedure in a house
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hearing. but was there a point of order raised, or did issa have the right to do what he did despite the fact that it looked really yucky? >> well, he's the chairman of the committee. and the way congress works, as you know ashleigh, the bottom line is brute force rules. republicans have control in terms of votes in the house of representatives. and it's usually the votes that decide. but the democrats say they're allowed five minutes to speak. and the ranking member there, elijah cummings, wasn't given the right to speak. so today there are more developments on this, ashleigh, resulting from that confrontation in the house oversight committee. and cummings as a matter of fact actually came out and talked at a news conference just a little while ago about issa and all that happened. so listen to this. >> undermined the integrity of our committee and they prevent us from doing responsible and
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effective oversight. the irony of what chairman issa did is that the question i wanted to ask was an attempt to help the committee's investigation. my question was about an offer from miss learner's attorney to provide a proper to the committee. i want that profer. i want to hear what her attorney would have said. and i want that information i think the entire committee is entitled to that information. as a matter of fact, i think the congress is. it doesn't give her immunity. and it does not bind the committee. but it could have given us some of the information the chairman was asking about on yesterday -- >> so that gives you some sense of what mr. cummings was talking about in that news conference today. it's also important to say that the speaker of the house republican john boehner spoke before mr. cummings came out and was asked whether he supports
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what issa did. he said he does support him. he also said that in his view the chairman of the committee, daryl issa, acted appropriately. bottom line here is congressional black caucus supported by many democrats has offered a privilege resolution calling on sanctions against the chairman, congressman issa. not likely to go anywhere, as i can see it, simply because republicans control the house and issa's a republican, ashleigh. >> well, and the headlines if the republicans wanted the headlines to be about the irs, the headlines today are about the drama and not about the substance of the hearing. so, joe johns, thank you for that. do appreciate your reporting on it. we have another big special coming guns, gangs and the problem of what to do about them. all an ongoing battle in chicago. and cnn is taking you inside that battle with a brand new series. we've got a sneak peek and a talk with the chicago police superintendent just ahead. the day we rescued riley was a truly amazing day.
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is dealing with gangs, guns and not cultural change in the department, not acceptance of an outsider, none of those things. they all pale in comparison to those challenges right there. and the media keep talking about the rising toll of gun violence in chicago while the numbers are going in the other direction. >> well, the press continues to focus on chicago's violence, there's actually been a decline. in 2012 there were 161 murders in the first quarter. in 2013, there were 93. that's more than a 40% reduction. >> we're taking a more wholistic approach to crime reduction here in chicago than i think has been done in most places in the country. >> what are you trying it achieve? >> trying to save the world. can't you tell? well, right now i'm trying to save chicago. so here's -- >> trying to save chicago. any particular part of chicago? >> all of it.
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>> all of it. cnn's "chicagoland" premieres tonight at 9:00. i'm thrilled to be joined now by chicago's police superintendent mccarthy. he's also led the newark, new jersey, police department. good to have you with us and also you're credited with almost 10% decrease in the murder there. and sitting directly to the right of superintendent mccarthy is evelyn diaz, who leads chicago's department of family and support services. superintendent mccarthy, i'd love to start with you. i seized upon what you said in the documentary, a wholistic approach to this problem. but i'm still not 100% clear on just exactly what that is. what is it? >> so, ashleigh, everybody wants to know what's one thing that we've done that's effecting the crime rate here in chicago. and it's not one thing, it's everything. we've put so many programs and policies in place internally in the department, but the first
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conversation that i had with mayor emanuel i had never met him before i interviewed for this job, and we had a shared vision as to what modern policing should look like. and it should look like enforcement taking the bad guys off the street, which is our job and law enforcement. and then following up with programs and social services so kind of fill a void to have a longer effect on the issues that we're addressing on the street. it's really evident in our narcotics enforcement. we don't try -- i'm not trying to fix the narcotics problem in the city of chicago. and i don't think that law enforcement can fix the narcotics problem in this country. but what we can do is we can eliminate individual narcotics markets on street corners, and then hold onto those locations. because as long as demand exists at those locations, supply will show back up.
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hold onto those corners, clean them up, organize the community and slowly but surely back out and keep that community propped up with services and programs and law enforcement again when necessary. just an example of what we're talking about. >> so let me bring ms. diaz into that conversation. this partnership you discuss with child and family services such a critical part of this entire equation, i would think that schools is as important as well if not completely integral. and yet what i keep hearing, the headlines out of chicago, is budget cuts and school closures and programs are disappearing. so i don't understand the disconnect between the wholistic approach to crime fighting starting at the bottom with the kids and making sure that they get what they need so they don't end up in the gangs and on the streets. those don't seem to match. ms. diaz, help me understand how it helps with the wholistic problem and helps you with child and family services. >> so, you know, part of the
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wholistic approach is starting with youth before they get into trouble, making sure that we have a whole host of different strategies everywhere that we encounter youths. whether that's outside of school, in school, coming out of the juvenile justice system, even when they're violating curfew. so first of all it's having a whole set of different kinds of programs. and i think in chicago we're really unique in that we've put this whole package together along with our policing strategies and have invested really heavily in funding programs that work. so we're looking at programs that we've tested that are shown to reduce violence. and we're investing heavily in those to make those programs available to more and more kids. and i think it just really gets to the mayor's commitment to keeping kids safe as part of
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what we're doing across chicago to make sure that they have a positive future. >> and, ashleigh, as far as -- can i just -- >> real quick, yeah. >> as far as school closings are concerned, those were underperforming schools. it's not like the mayor and his staff picked out locations randomly. it was based upon analysis of consolidation that would improve the quality of the education that the kids were receiving. and in the first episode you're going to see a lot about the school closings and people talking about crossing gang lines. and we came up with a safe passage program that so far, and knock on wood, we're going into the last two months of the year we have not had any sort of incidents occur where children have been injured in any fashion with that. >> and you know what i'll say this as well, mr. superintendent, i'll say this in 2014 we've only had a couple months so far, but stats are looking pretty good. 38% decline in shooting incidents, a 40% decline in shooting victims, a 40% decline
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in murders and 48% decline in overall crime. so far so good. this is going to be a great series. i thank you both for being on the program today and also for taking part in this series. i think it's great for our audience to get an in-depth look at what's going on in chicago. so good luck. we hope to have you back soon. >> thank you. >> thank you. i encourage you, check out "chicagoland," it premieres tonight 10:00 p.m. eastern time, 9:00 central. and we're back right after this. okay, listen up! i'm re-workin' the menu. mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here! aah! [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of great-tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition in charge™. ♪
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we are very proud here at cnn to be bringing to you an original series, a new original series called "death row stories." it takes a look at the backstory of capital murder cases in america. one such case begins in 1982 when this man, edward elmore, is
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convicted of murder. but there was a legal intern named diana holt, who wasn't so sure that he was guilty. she's on the hunt to find the evidence to get elmore out of jail. >> in order to solve the mystery of who did murder dorothy edwards, diana began looking for alternate suspects. and she found one in the neighbor who discovered the body, james hollowway. >> i read the testimony and my head just about spun off of my little spindly neck. i was like, wow. >> holloway spent an unusually long period of time at the crime scene before calling the police. >> he goes inside dorothy edwards' house. he sees that wall of blood for the first time, but he doesn't call police. he decides that he's going to go to the other side neighbor and get her to come in the house with him. so he's at the closet door
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again. and he decides to put gloves on. then he opens the door. and low and behold there she was. really? he put his gloves on before he went to open the door? >> does diana holt? find out who really killed dorothy. you can find out by watching "death row stories" on sunday on cnn at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. the executive producer, one of them, is the very famous robert redford. here he is explaining why death row stories intrigued him in the first place. >> so death row stories is not just about people who are innocent in prison falsely. it's about people who are there because they belong there. and they were guilty. but what about their stories? when they tell you i did this, here's why i did it, i regret it or i don't regret it. that's part of the picture. also, there are people behind
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prison who say i don't belong here, i've been put here unjustly, unfairly. but i think it's important for to look at the whole system of being put behind bars and then sentenced to death, what are those people thinking? what do they feel like? even one who is are guilty? i just think it's stories that are interesting to hear. >> okay. that's the understatement, interesting to hear. joining me now, alex, one of the executive producers for "death row stories." he won an academy award and multiple emmys for his work in documentaries. and joining me on his left is attorney barry shek who is the co-director of the innocent project, an organization who helps exonerate people who are wrongly convicted. and the numbers just keep climbing. you do some terrific work, barry. alex, i want to begin with you. you're not a newbie to this kind of material, yet you were so steeped in these episodes. i want to know if you learned something you didn't already
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know before. >> the series is called "death row stories," and we came to them as stories a little bit like what bob redford was talking about. the poignancy of these death row tales. but what struck me more than anything was the sense that, you know, there were patterns here. and very disturbing patterns about how the system was kind of deeply broken. and it's those patterns that keep coming up over and over again that made me want to do this as a series rather than -- >> the patterns, i think, barry by now you're exhausted by the patterns that you have found. and if only your organization was about 15 times bigger and better funded than it is, a press could get to the bottom of the patterns, stop the patterns and maybe right the pattern that have already unjustly incarcerated so many people. this is, as robert redford said, it's not all about the wrongfully convicted. but generally speaking, that is what's wrong with the system today.
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why is there so much error in what we're doing? >> well, we are trying to get to the bottom of causes of wrongful conviction. and we know what they are, they involve eyewitness misidentification and false confessions, unreliable forensic science, jailhouse snitch testimony. but police and prosecutorial misconduct and bad lawyers and race, it's all tied up. and i'm sure you're going to see all of this in the "death row stories." but the issue of prosecutorial misconduct in particular, ashleigh, when you were talking about, you know, people that deliberately violate -- >> this is what i can't believe. i get mistakes. i get mishandled evidence. i get contamination. stuff that people don't intend and the consequence is horrible. i don't get the intentional. the ones who say to hell with it, i'm going to lie, i'm going to cheat, i'm going to put that guy away. >> well, this is a key thing because we just had a judge, the chief judge of the ninth circuit court of appeals just issue an
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opinion where he said he believes prosecutorial misconduct is epidemic. >> epidemic. >> i don't know if we want to go so far as to say it's epidemic but it's certainly more than episo episodic. but what we need is rules, that we're coming up at the innocence project, to hold people responsible. prosecutors who deliberately violate the rules. not negligent incompetent inexperienced people. but when you deliberately hide exculpatory evidence, you should be sanctioned. >> that's the most egregious of it all. >> you should go to jail. >> and without question i think it's great about what you're doing is helping americans understand that our system isn't perfect. and if we're going to kill people and legitimize it, we better bloody well know what we're doing. and we better be absolutely perfect, which i don't know about you last time i checked none of us was. this is a terribly entertaining series of documentaries to watch. fascinating material but also
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extremely helpful for american jurisprudence for people to understand just what we're up against. barry, great to have you on here. alex, i look forward to the entire series. by the way, just to remind you cnn's original series "death row stories" airs sunday 9:00 p.m. eastern time. check it out for sure. here's a question, should it be illegal of someone to take a picture up a woman's skirt while she doesn't know it? it's called upskirting. and you will not believe what a judge has actually weighed in on when it comes to this. two words, look out. story's next. when it comes to good nutrition...i'm no expert. that would be my daughter -- hi dad. she's a dietitian. and back when i wasn't eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals,
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and how short life is. she can take all the time she wants. princess cruises, come back new. ♪ i want you to listen to this very, very carefully, especially you ladies out there. if there's a creepy dude out there taking a picture up your skirt without you knowing it, like say on the subway of massachusetts, that guy'd be in pretty big trouble, right? arrested, charged, convicted, maybe even jailed? turns out not so much. in fact, it's not even a crime, because that's what a judge in that state's highest court decided yesterday in the case of this lovely species, michael robertson. michael was busted for sneaking around and taking cell phone video and pictures up women's dresses while they weren't looking. but today he's a free man. he will not be charged. he will not be judged.
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he will not be jailed. so just feast your eyes on that one, ladies. keep a good look out for him. and mind your skirt. mel robins, criminal defense attorney in boston, is here with me live to try to figure this one out. how did this -- what? i mean, that's really what i have to ask, what? how did this happen? >> well, ashleigh, he will be judged, my friend. he will be judged. he's going to be judged right here and right now by you and me. >> you got that right, sister. >> he was charged under the peeping tom laws in massachusetts. and during the hearings before trial his -- they tried to dismiss the case saying, hey, listen, women that are already clothed don't have a right to privacy. and by the way, their clothed so they're not partially nude. and the court dismissed the claim, it appealed, appealed, appealed, went up to the supreme judicial court and believe it or not they agreed with the defendant. the supreme judicial court, which is seven judges here in
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massachusetts, highest court, said basically, ladies, when you're wearing a skirt, number one, you got clothing on. and number two, if you're sitting on the subway, there are cameras, there are people, you're in public, you've got no right to privacy. what i say and i'm sure you're going to agree with it, they call it private parts for a reason. they do not call it public bits. >> nicely put. >> ashleigh, check this out. we're not talking ukraine, we're talking underpants here, boston globe main story. so people are freaking out. >> mel, i want to bring in two guys who regularly comment on this program, hln's legal analyst and criminal defense attorney joey jackson and cnn's legal analyst danny cevallos. when i read this story, i immediately thought of you, but why i did is because i know we've talked before on this program about your expectation of privacy. mel just dabbled in that. i always assumed your expectation of privacy isn't confined to a space, like a bathroom or bedroom in your own home, but that you should have an expectation of privacy under
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your clothing. >> amen. amen, ashleigh. and of course danny will break it down because he's written about this piece, so he's ready. but listen, i take exception, major exception to this judge's ruling. laws have to make sense and they have to instill public confidence, right? ultimately we can interpret laws by the black letter, or we can look at the underlying intent of a statute. >> isn't it called spirit? >> yes, it does. when it's underneath your clothes, i get what they're saying you're not technically partially nude as required by the statute, but women wear what they wear, men wear what they wear, but when you're looking up a woman's skirt, i think that meets with the spirit of the statute. in addition to which you have an expectation of privacy underneath your own clothes. the court got it wrong. we need the legislature to get it right. >> tell me, danny, is this guy behind me, is he in the clear to walk amongst us? >> not so fast, mr. jackson. let me tell you why. >> i knew it.
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>> if you're angry at anyone, don't be -- you too, mel. don't be angry at the court. be angry at the legislature. because they correctly applied the law as defined. first, what is partial nudity? well, they look to the statute and partial nudity involves the exposure of a private part. and by exposure it means open to the public. if you don't like the way the court applied the law, then get angry at the legislature because they correctly read the law and said in this case there was no actual exposure. skirts are -- you know, skirts or kilts, joey, i know once in a while you'll throw on a -- isn't that what they're called? the problem with those issues is those are not exposed to the public, your private parts. although it's horrifically private. >> mel, give me ten seconds, talk me off the ledge. >> i'd say put the thongs in the drawer and get out the shape wear until they get this thing -- >> oh, dear god, you did not. >> i did. it's 20 degrees here in boston,
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so no woman in her right mind is wearing a skirt without tights today. they're going to fix this, but this is foreshadowing for major problems to come as technology creeps not only up our skirts but everywhere else in our lives. >> excellent point. all right, mel robins, danny cevallos, joey jackson, i'm not done. i'm going to say this, the law, sure, the procedure, sure, the spirit, sure. but this dude he may have won the battle, but that dude -- well, i think you could say he's lost the war on dating because i am going to put that picture up everywhere i can. that guy's out there with his camera. he's not going to be behind bars where i dare say he might get more action than he's going to get now. and i'll tell you something else, he got a shot at justice. he got his shot at you. but he's not really going to get a shot at the ladies. >> but because of him, the law's going to be changed, ashleigh. and as a result women will be protected. and that is a very good thing.
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>> i'm on the side of the ladies on this one. gentlemen. >> so are we. >> love you to piece. thank you both. thank you everybody for joining me on this program today. we have a lot more coverage on world events as well as what's happening here in america. wolf, my colleague, starts right after this break. ♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. i reckoreckon so.s a brewin'. reckon you gotta hotel? reckon, no. reckon priceline express deals will get you a great deal. wherever you...mosey. you reckon? we reckon.
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hello. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we're following breaking news. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we have just learned that president obama is about to step into the white house briefing room. there you see the reporters, the producers, the camera crews, they're all getting ready. the president is going to make a statement, we're told, on ukraine. this is a surprise addition to the president's schedule. we don't know what he is going to say. but let's bring in our white house correspondent michelle kosinski. only moments ago they alerted u

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